Posts Tagged ‘interviews’

Michael Ventrella, the novelist who wrote the afterword for the third Candorville collection, Katrina’s Ghost, interviewed me last week. You can read the full interview on his site, and it contains several startling revelations, such as: Pat Buchanan inspired my interest in politics; I have President Obama all figured out; and I am, apparently, a potty mouth.

Here’s an excerpt:

VENTRELLA: How did that get you into doing comics as a career?

BELL: In a roundabout way…

I was in gifted and talented programs in Jr. High and High School, and I realized my interest in history and civics was outpacing my interest in art (I’d been drawing since the age of three). That’s when the man who sparked my interest in politics (Pat Buchanan) became the same man who sparked my interest in journalism. In 1988, a Pat Buchanan ad where he portrayed a Gay Pride parade as proof we were going to CENSORED, pissed me off. I had barely noticed politics before this, but I sure as CENSORED paid attention to it afterward. It just seemed so monstrously unfair, and the prospect of someone like him leading the country scared the CENSORED out of me.

Anyhow, four years later, I was flipping through channels looking for coverage of the Clinton-Bush campaign, when I saw that same guy on TV. Pat Buchanan. He was so smug and full of his own opinion, but I noticed he looked really, really happy. And it occurred to me, I’d be happy too if millions of people were listening to my CENSORED ideas and taking me seriously.

Listen to me talk about my work, the industry, Star Trek, Fringe, & what it’s like to draw a week of cartoons in one day on the Wacom Cintiq, at Tall Tale Radio. I also reveal a huge change taking place in my other comic strip, “Rudy Park.”